Computers and other devices are linked in a local data network by a router. That router also enables those devices to communicate over a wide area data network such as the internet. The electronics that perform the router functions typically reside on one or more printed circuit boards housed in a protective enclosure. The enclosure provides various connectors for data flowing into and out of the router as well as a connector to provide power to the router. A router may have a user interface made up of lights and user controls such as buttons and switches. The controls allow a user to perform functions such as turning the router on and off or perform some aspect of configuring the router's behavior.
The user interface lights are often arranged in a row along an edge or the side of the router. By arranging the lights in this fashion, it is easy to label the function of each light and the lights are arranged to be all visible to the user at the same time. In addition, this is generally the simplest and most cost effective way to implements the lights, since the lights are often LED's (Light Emitting Diodes) which can be mounted in a row along the edge of a printed circuit board, so as to align with windows in the router's enclosure.
The user interface lights communicate the router's current state to the user. Each light has an individualized purpose. In other words, each light is reflective of one of any number of possible router functions or conditions. Possible states reflected by a given light include:
Power—an indication of whether the router is on or off;
WAN (Wide Area Network)—an indication of whether the upstream network is functioning correctly;
LAN (Local Area Network)—an indication of whether a particular physical LAN port is active.
USB (Universal Serial Bus)—an indication of whether the router has an active connection to a device through a USB port.
WiFi—an indication of whether the router is actively supporting a wireless network.
Modem—an indication of whether the router has a functioning connection with a modem such as a cable or DSL modem.
As noted, each indicator light is dedicated to indicating the status of a single function. To indicate the current status of a given function, a light may turn on or off, change color, blink, or do some combination thereof. For example, one light may be dedicated to indicating whether the router is on (light is on) or off (light is off), or is in the process of turning on (light is flashing).
Because a router's status indicator lights each serve an individual purpose, the type of information that can be communicated is limited. While some indicator lights may have multiple selectable colors and some may blink enabling each such light to indicate multiple states, the resolution provided by blinking and color selection is not sufficient to effectively communicate information such as a magnitude that is more analog in nature.